The purpose of using an interview guide is to ‘ensure that interview covers basically the same ground but gives the interviewer considerable discretion in the conduct of the interview’ (Ellis, 1993, 475). The degree to which the guide ‘controls’ the interview depends very much on the type of interview. The guide can range from a strict ‘script’ not only providing predetermined questions but also providing a limited number of response categories, to a list of topics the interviewer wisher to cover. Example 15.1 on page 180 is a ‘semi-structured’ general guide designed to be used with young teenagers (Pickard, 2002, 475). For those of you new to the interview process I would suggest that is as far as you go in terms of keeping the interview require before you enter the field. This example was actually the first interview in a series of interviews with the same group of respondents; as time went on the interview became increasing less structured and many took place during observations. This interview was designed to identify salient issues and formed the ground work for the 18 months of fieldwork that followed.